I’ve been using Tumblr for quite a while, keep my little collection of really naughty photographs there and marvel at the choices of others. Yes, Tumblr can also be used for clean(er) things, or as a normal blog, but I made my choice way back when, and I’m quite happy with it.

Now Tumblr has brought in a few changes which make the site easier to use but, at the same time, remove something a lot of people have found beneficial to outside web sites.

The first is the method by which items posted can be re-posted by others. A re-post meant being taken to a new page, making all the changes that you wished to make, hitting re-blog and then going back to the start of the page you were on, not to the post you were on. The system now uses a pop-up page for re-posts which is quicker and looks considerably better. You return to the post you were at and don’t need to scroll down and find the next one on your dashboard any more. Much better.

For those who used to use Tumblr as an easy way to get links back to their own web sites outside of Tumblr – including me, I must admit – the system no longer allows this on re-posts. Posters can still put in a source URL, but no longer have the means to add a click-through URL. The click-through was included in the posted item coding as a direct link, rather the same as we do with hyperlinks here or elsewhere. Now the automatic link is to the source on Tumblr itself. Not that back links through Tumblr made any difference as far as search engines are concerned; one link from Tumblr would be registered and that was it. It did allow many people to gain visitors, though, which is something I guess I will miss in the coming months. Tumblr was one of the highest sources of visitors I had, so I shall have to adapt and find new sources of interest, new sources for visitors here or concentrate on adding new pictures rather than so many re-posts.

But, all in all, a much better layout and posting system. Although it would have been a little bit more user friendly had Tumblr told us – the users – that the changes were on the way…